Phonographic apparatus



Aug. 10, 1943. F. E. RUNGE PHONOGRAPHIC APPARATUS Original Filed June 29, 1940 Patented Aug. 10, 1943 PHONOGRAPHIC APPARATUS Frank E. Runge, Indianapolis, Ind., assignor to Radio Corporation of America, a corporation of Delaware Original application June 29, 1940, Serial No.

Divided and this application May 28, 1941, Serial No. 395,524

6 Claims.

This invention relates to phonographic apparatus of the type adapted to record sound upon a blank disc for immediate playback, and more particularly to the mechanism therein for collecting the shavings or thread produced during the groove-cutting operation, the present application being a division of my copending application Serial No. 343,116, filed June 29, 1940, now Patent No. 2,262,148, and assigned to Radio Corporation of America.

In recent years, there have come into rather extensive use sound-recording machines employ-,

ing blank discs in which sound grooves may be cut by means of a suitable cutter which removes a thread or shaving during the cutting operation. These discs are usually made of a suitable base material, such as aluminum, coated with several layers of surface material, such as nitrocellulose lacquers or the like. These surface materials are of a nature such that the threads cut therefrom tend to curl up and gather around the cutter, and unless they are removed, they may accumulate around the cutter to an extent such as to interfere with the proper cutting operation.

Various mechanisms have been proposed heretofore for removing the shavings or thread produced during the cutting operation. Such devices usually embody suction means, blowers, or the like, all of which are relatively complicated and expensive. Other mechanisms which are less complicated have also been proopsed, but these do not remove the threads very effectively.

The primary object of my present invention is to provide an improved thread remover, in phonographic apparatus of the type set forth above,

which will not be subject to the disadvantages of prior art thread removers.

More particularly, it is an object of my present invention to provide an improved shaving or thread remover for collecting the shavings out in the blank disc by the cutting stylus.

It is also an object of my present'invention to provide an improved thread remover which is simple in construction, inexpensive in cost, and which will not require apparatus extraneous to that normally employed in the recording machine.

In accordance with my present invention, I

provide a lead screw on a frame member one end of which is mounted on the'motor board and the other end of which rests on the turntable and carries the driving mechanism which couples the rotating turntable to the lead screw for delivering power thereto. A suitable carriage which is arranged to coact with the'lead screw carries the signal-translating device which includes a cutting stylus adapted to cooperate with a record blank on the turntable. Included in the coupling between the turntable and the lead screw is a somewhat spool-shaped member which rests on the record blank and has driving engagement with the turntable, the spool-shaped member being arranged concentrically with the turntable and record blank and occupying an area on the record substantially equal to the central label area found on conventional records. Due to the resilience of the thread cut from the blank and its tendency to curl, it winds itself around the neck of the spool-shaped member in the form of a ring during the cutting operation, and when this operation is completed, the spool-shaped member may be uncoupled from the turntable and the ring of threads or shavings may be easily slipped off and discarded.

The novel features that I consider characteristic of my invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its organization and method of operation, as well as additional ob jects and advantages thereof, will best be understood from .the following description of one embodiment thereof when read in connection with the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly in section, showing a recording machine which includes a thread collector in accordance with my present invention, and

Figure 2 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 11-11 of Figure 1.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, I have shown, in Figure 1, a motor board I provided with a pair of openings 3 and 5 through the former of which extends a motor shaft 1 terminating in a spindle 9 to which a turntable II is suitably secured, and the latter of which has extending therein an internally threaded sleeve I3 which is secured to the motor board. Threaded into the sleeve l 3 is a bushing 15 which rotatably receives a downwardly extending pin II on a yoke IS, the yoke l9 carrying a pair of conically tipped bearings 20 which pivotally support one end of a frame 2|. By turning the bushing IS in the threads of the sleeve IS, the bushing l5 can be raised or lowered and locked in any desired position by means of a set screw 23, and since the yoke I9 is rotatable horizontally within the bushing l5 and the frame 2| is rotatable vertically on the bearings 20, it is obvious that the frame 2! is universally adjustable relative to the turntable II to cause the frame to assume any desired angular relation with respect to the turntable.

The upper end of the spindle 9 is conically tipped and has resting thereon a shaft 25 Journaled in the frame 2| and formed with a conical seat or bearing in its lower end. The shaft 25 carries a worm 21 which meshes with a gear 29 fixed to a short shaft 3|. The turntable II is provided with a plurality of circumferentially distributed openings 33 which are radially spaced from the spindle 9 and which receive driving pins 35 threaded into a somewhat spool-shaped coupling member 31 having a neck or central portion 31a intermediate its length for a purpose presently to be set forth.

The shaft 25 extends down through the coupling member 31 and is connected thereto by means of a diametrically extending cross pin 39, the lower conical seat of the shaft 25, which is formed on a greater angle than the conical tip of the spindle 9, resting on the spindle tip. The construction is generally similar to that disclosed and claimed in the copending application of Raymond F. Brady, Serial No. 276,604, filed May 31, 1939, now Patent No. 2,276,459, and assigned to Radio Corporation of America. It will be obvious from the foregoing description that power may be transmitted from the motor shaft 1 to the turntable thence through the pins 35, the coupling member 31 and the cross pin 39 to the shaft 26 and its worm 21 which, in turn, drives the gear 29 and its shaft 3|.

The frame member 2| includes a pair of tie bars 4| and Ma and rotatably carries a lead screw 43 which is connected to the shaft 3| by a one-way spring clutch 45 one end of which is fixed to the shaft 3| and the other end of which is wound loosely on the adjacent end of the lead screw 43. The spring clutch 45 is so arranged that when the shaft 3| begins to turn it tends to wind the spring 45 tightly around the lead screw and thereby drives it. The opposite end of the lead screw 43 extends beyond the frame member 2| and has secured thereto a handle 41 by means of which the lead screw 43 may be turned manually in the same direction as the spring 45 tends to turn it for rotating the lead screw at a greater speed than is provided by the gearing 22-29, as is sometimes desirable.

Mounted on the lead screw 43 for both rotation and longitudinal sliding movement thereon is a combined supporting and operating sleeve 49 provided with a forwardly extending operating handle A mounting sleeve 53 is freely mounted on the supporting sleeve 49 and has a pair of downwardly extending arms 53a on the lower end of which is pivotally carried a signaltranslating device or recorder head 55 carrying a cutting stylus 51, all as set forth more fully and claimed in my above-identified copending application. Inasmuch as the details of this particular mounting mechanism are not material to the present invention, it is not believed necessary to describe them in greater detail. Sufiice it to say, however, that, by manipulating the handle 5|, the cutter head 55 may be either raised from or lowered down onto a record blank R supported on the turntable I, as the case may be.

During the recording operation, the stylus 51, in engagement with the record blank R, cuts a thread 59 therefrom to form a groove 6| in the blank disc. As the shaving 59 is removed from the blank, it tends to curl up toward the center of the blank and then reverse itself back toward the cutting stylus. In conventional machines, the thread then accumulates around the stylus and, in many instances, interferes with the further proper recording. By providing the spoolshaped coupling member 31, however, the shaving or thread 59 will wind itself loosely around the neck portion 31a thereof as the turntable rotates, and the thread will collect on the coupling member in the form of a ring eccentrically to the axis of the coupling member 31 and on a diameter somewhat greater than the base of the coupling member 31, as clearly shown in Figure 2. When the recording operation is completed, the handle 5| is raised to remove the cutter head 55 from engagement with the record blank R, whereupon the entire mechanism may be lifted from the record blank by pivoting the frame member 2| around the pivots 20, and the ring of shavings which has accumulated on the shaving collector 31 can he slipped off easily therefrom.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that I have provided an improved shaving collector which has many advantages not found in prior art devices of this nature. Although I have shown and described but one embodiment of my invention, I am fully aware that many other modifications thereof are possible. I desire it to be understood, therefore, that my invention is not to be limited except insofar as is made necessary by the prior art and by the spirit of the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In signal-recording apparatus of the type employing a rotatable turntable and a disc record blank supported thereon, the combination of a signal-translating device movable over said blank and including a cutting element for cutting a groove in said blank by removal of shavings therefrom, and a spool-shaped member resting on said blank concentrically with said turntable, said member having driving engagement with said turntable whereby to be driven thereby and having its portion of reduced diameter in sufficiently close relation to said turntable to enable said shavings to wind around it as it rotates whereby to collect said shavings thereon.

2. In signal-translating apparatus of the type employing a rotatable turntable and a disc record blank supported thereon, the combination of a lead screw located at a relatively remote point from the exposed surface of said blank, means coupling said turntable to said lead screw for imparting rotation to said lead screw from said turntable, a driven member cooperating with said lead screw and adapted to be driven thereby, and a signal-translating device carried by said driven member and including a cutting element for cutting a groove in said exposed blank surface by removal of shavings therefrom, said coupling means including a member disposed in close proximity to said exposed blank surfaces and rotatable with said turntable for receiving shavings cut by said cutting element during the cutting operation.

3. In signal-translating apparatus of the type employing a rotatable turntable and a disc record blank supported thereon, the combination of a lead screw located at a relatively remote point from the exposed surface of said blank, means coupling said turntable to said lead screw for imparting rotation to said lead screw from said turntable, a driven member cooperating with said lead screw and adapted to be driven thereby, and a signal translating device carried by said driven member and including a cutting element for cutting a groove in said exposed blank surface by removal of shavings therefrom, said coupling means including a substantially spoolshaped member disposed in close proximity to said exposed blank surface for receiving shavings cut by said cutting element during the cutting operation.

4. The invention set forth in claim 3 characterized in that said spool-shaped member is concentric with said turntable and rests on said blank, and characterized further in that said member is of a diameter such that it rests only on the central portion of said blank.

5. In signal-translating apparatus of the type employing a rotatable turntable and a disc record blank supported thereon, the combination of a lead screw extending across said turntable in a relatively elevated plane above said record blank, means coupling said turntable to said lead screw for imparting rotation to said lead screw from said turntable, a driven member cooperating with said lead screw and adapted to be driven thereby, and a signal translating device carried by said driven member and including a cutting element for cutting a groove in said blank by removal of shavings therefrom, said coupling means including a substantially spool-shaped member disposed in closer proximity to said blank than said lead screw for receiving shavings cut by said cutting element during the cutting operation.

6. The combination with a recording mechanism employing a rotatable turntable and means arranged over said turntable for cutting a thread-like strand from the upper surface of a disc record blank arranged on said turntable in forming a recording thereon of a thread-removing attachment comprising a spool-shaped member axially aligned with said turntable and having driving engagement therewith, said thread being adapted to wind itself around the neck of said member during the recording operation and while said turntable and member'are rotating FRANK E. RUNGE 

